


Web of Lies

by TippenFunkaport



Series: SPOP Missing Scenes [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Bow's Dads - Freeform, F/M, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Lies, M/M, Princess Prom (She-Ra)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24853432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TippenFunkaport/pseuds/TippenFunkaport
Summary: When Bow was sitting in that Horde prison cell after the Princess Prom, he was so afraid he would never see his dads again that he rushes to go visit them as soon as he gets back to Bright Moon. But, once he's there, he remembers why he doesn't visit more often: it's impossible to have a normal conversation with George and Lance without getting caught up in his own ridiculous web of lies. But while Bow's trying to keep his secrets, it turns out his dads have one of their own.Takes place after No Princess Left Behind.Bow trying to interact with his dads without blowing all his secrets. Glimbow-leaning with passing mention of Bowfuma.
Relationships: Bow & George & Lance (She-Ra), Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), George/Lance (She-Ra)
Series: SPOP Missing Scenes [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877965
Comments: 15
Kudos: 106





	Web of Lies

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a quick little thing I wrote for Father's Day. And then posted late because life.

"George? Lance?" Bow called into the darkened library. Where were they? He really hoped they were home and not visiting one of his siblings or down at the ruins or something. There was no one in the main room so he started down the hallway. He could hear water running, that had to mean someone was there. "Hello?"

Lance leaned out of the kitchen doorway, a dish towel in hand. " Bow? George, look who's here!" He burst out into the hallway and immediately pulled Bow into a warm hug.

"Hey, Lance." Bow buried his face in the familiar scent of home and tried not to cry. When he'd been sitting in that Horde cell in the remains of his Princess Prom suit, he'd been so afraid he would never see them again. 

"There's my boy!" George had joined them, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He crushed Bow into a tight embrace. "We weren't expecting you home for a few more weeks. Everything all right?" He held Bow at arm's length with that look that always made Bow feel like he was looking right through him.

"Everything's fine." Bow tried to keep his voice even, but it still wavered a little. He'd been here five minutes, and he was already lying. "I just wanted to see you guys."

"Well, we're so glad you did!" Lance swatted him with the dish towel and ducked back into the kitchen. "We were just cleaning up after dinner but if you're hungry, it would be no trouble to heat something up."

"Uh, no thank you. I'm good." Bow swallowed, thinking about the dinner he'd had with Glimmer and Adora before he left. This was why he didn't visit that often, even though he missed his dads. He hated lying to them but it was almost impossible to talk about anything in his life without it.

He followed his dads into the kitchen and tried not to grab at the part of his sweater tickling against his midriff. The feeling of it touching his skin was driving him crazy. How did people live like this? It was so constricting! He perched in one of the kitchen chairs, his leg bouncing under the table.

"I didn't think they ran a transport to the Whispering Woods at this hour." George said it mildly enough but Bow felt a droplet of sweat bead on the side of his face. He had been so desperate to see them, he hadn't thought this out like he usually did. The Academy of Historic Enterprises was supposed to be a few day's transport journey away, far enough away that it was believable that he didn't come home more often. His dads had no idea he was really staying just on the other side of the Whispering Woods with the rebellion at Bright Moon.

"Oh, I'm... staying with a friend. Her mom lives not too far from here." This was sort of true, right? He chewed at the inside of his lip. 

"Oo, what's her name? You never tell us about your friends! How did you meet? I want all the details," Lance said, pouring Bow a cup of tea. "You should have brought her over for a visit."

Yeah, that is absolutely never going to happen. Bow took a big swig of tea to give him time to think of a reply which he very quickly regretted as it was scalding hot. He forced the burning swallow down and then tried to smile non-nonchalantly. This was painful in more ways than one. Luckily George was still busy with the dishes and Lance was fluttering around getting cookies so neither seemed to notice. Bow tried to remember what he'd said in his letters. "You know my friend Glimmer? I know I've written about her. Majoring in Physics?"

It made a kind of sense in his head. She may not actually know the math part exactly, but Glimmer always had to take space and velocity and force and all that into account every time she teleported and wasn't that physics? Sort of?

"Ah, yes." George looked his way as he stacked the dishes in the cabinet. "Glimmer. Not named after the little rebel princess, I hope?"

Bow choked on his tea and tried to make it look like a cough. He tried to keep his voice from cracking. "Oh, uh, I don't think so. It's a common name, isn't it? Glimmer?" Was it? He had no idea. But George seemed to accept it with an eyebrow bob and went back to sorting silverware.

"So, what's been going on at school? Your letters are always far too short!" Lance set the plate of cookies in front of him and sat down across the table. He leaned across eagerly. "You never give us any details. We know nothing about your friends or what your life is like there or what you do for fun!"

George had finished with the dishes and he sat next to Lance, the two of them facing him like it was an inquisition. Bow shoved a cookie in his mouth to buy himself a minute. By the time he'd finishing chewing, he'd decided that maybe the easier way to get out of this was to actually tell them the truth.

Sort of.

"Well, we just had this, uh, school formal. It was this really fancy dance. That was cool." Heh. Cool. Because Princess Prom had been at the Kingdom of Snows? Lance would love that! If, you know, explaining it wouldn't unravel this whole ridiculous web of lies. Bow traced a finger through the cookie crumbs on the table.

"Now we're talking!" Lance nearly shouted, slapping George on the back so hard his mustache got soaked with tea. "Did you go with a date?"

"Yeah." Bow felt his face go warm. He was already regretting this.

"And what was his name?" Lance prodded.

"Her name is Perfuma."

"Oh?" Lance looked surprised. "Well, you know we love you no matter what."

"Another princess name!" George grumbled as he grabbed for a napkin. It was occurring to Bow that maybe he should change some of these names. "Is it serious with you and this Perfuma? How long have you been seeing each other?"

"Oh, our little Bow all grown up and dating!" Lance was getting misty eyed.

"We're not dating! We just went to the dance together. As friends."

"You never know. A little time, a few more dates, all sorts of things might blossom!" Lance grasped George's arm and George said something under his breath that sounded like, "You dork."

Bow sighed. Perfuma. Blossom. Another great pun he couldn't even share without blowing it all. "Well, I'm probably not going on anymore dates with Perfuma. She's really nice and I like her a lot but... going as her date was a mistake."

"How so?" George took sip of tea.

"It was just a big mess. It really hurt Glimmer's feelings." Bow grabbed another cookie and turned it over and over in between his fingers. There was still a twisting feeling in his gut about that whole thing, even if Glimmer insisted what happened wasn't his fault. But if he'd been there with her, she never would have gotten taken by the Horde and then Shadow Weaver wouldn't have tortured her and she wouldn't be in pain right now and glitching and — Hmm. He tried to hide the now rather squashed cookie behind his cup. "We just should have been there together. And, worst of all, I hurt her feelings and I am never, ever doing that again."

"Ah, our little boy's first love triangle!" Bow couldn't remember seeing Lance this excited in ages. How were they getting such a completely wrong idea about this?

"What? No! Glimmer and I aren't... She's just my friend. My best friend!"

"Mmmhmm. And this girl, who is just your friend, got so jealous that you took another girl to the dance--"

"She wasn't jealous! She was--" But he hesitated. No. That didn't make any sense. Glimmer didn't like him like that. The whole idea was ridiculous. It was just a tactically unsound decision to go with someone outside of their core, uh... It was his dads that were missing the whole point here! "It hurt her I didn't go with her, that's all."

"I see." George and Lance exchanged a look that made Bow feel like they knew something he didn't.

There was an awkward pause while Bow tried to figure out why his dads thinking of Glimmer as jealous was bothering him so much before George changed the subject. "So, what did you wear? Does your old white suit even still fit?"

"Yeah, it fits." Hmm, should he mention that it got kind of completely destroyed? He hadn't been about to let the Horde separate him from Glimmer without a fight and both he and the suit had ended up the worse for wear for that. Maybe it was simpler to let Angella get him a new one. She's already offered anyway and it would be easier than explaining how an entire sleeve had gotten torn off. But he hated having to ask for anything else from Glimmer's mom. She and Glimmer had already given him way too much. He sighed. "Or, it did. It got a little wrecked."

George slammed his tea cup back down on his saucer. "Wrecked? What kind of dance was this?"

Oh, brother. Bow fought the urge to collapse onto the table and hide his face. "It was..." The truth. That was the easiest thing, right? Less to remember. "There were these other... kids there from... another school? And they started messing with us--"

"Don't tell me you were fighting?" George had fixed him with a very stern glare.

"They were hurting Glimmer!" He hit the table so hard his teacup clattered against the saucer. He steadied it with his hand. This was getting out of control. He needed to get it together. Deep breaths. There we go. But when he thought of what Shadow Weaver had done to Glimmer, how she'd suffered and was still suffering he hadn't been able to do anything—

"Glimmer again." Lance exchanged another meaningful look with George. Bow felt like he should stop them from drawing whatever conclusion they were drawing but he wasn't sure exactly what it was.

George reached across the table and put a hand on Bow's shoulder. "It's all right, son. We're proud of you for standing up for your friend."

Bow sighed. Everything about this was terrible. This was the closest he'd ever come to telling his dads about something real from his actual life and they were getting completely the wrong idea about it. "It was really Adora who--"

"Adora?"

"She's our other friend. Adora used to... go to the... other school before she transferred to the Academy and she's the one who..." They were giving him a very confused look and he tried to circle back. "... see they were only after us because Adora's ex" —Wow, OK, what had compelled him to refer to Catra like that? Though it felt weirdly like it fit? — "was jealous that Adora was hanging out with us. Because she doesn't approve that she is majoring in... Art?" Art? He'd just picked that one out of nowhere but, whatever, it wasn't like they'd ever meet Adora anyway. His dads blinked at him. He sighed and gave up. "Anyway, the suit got wrecked."

"I see." George had him fixed with a level stare. Bow pretended to be really interested in the pattern on his tea cup.

Lance, however, was downright giddy. "So much drama! Ah, young love!"

Bow opened his mouth to object and instead just blew out a puff of air. This had been a mistake. They were never going to understand his life, and it was too hard to try to keep up with all these lies. Luckily, Lance had started reminiscing about his own teenage love affairs to George's immense irritation and they were bickering playfully. Neither seemed to notice that Bow was watching them, a sad smile on his face.

Hours later, they had filled him in on all the family drama and latest historical findings and without Bow needing to give more than his usual one syllable responses. Then George had gotten into a long rant about how terrible the princesses were until Bow wanted to crawl under the table and die, until Lance finally yawned and Bow told them another lie about how Glimmer's mom was giving them a ride back to school tonight and he had to run. Hugs, goodbyes and promises to write (that he would keep) and bring his friends next time (that he absolutely would not) and then Bow had finally gotten that awful sweater off and was making his lonely way back through the Whispering Woods by the light of his tracker pad.

When he stepped into the bright lights of Bright Moon, he heard footsteps running down the hall towards him.

"There are you!" Glimmer crashed into him, wrapping him in a hug. "I saw you from the window and I had to run all the way down here! On my actual feet!" She slumped against him dramatically as if this was the worst thing she could imagine and he couldn't help but smile. "I really miss teleporting!"

"I'm flattered I was worth the effort." He put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "How's the glitching?"

"It's fine. We're ignoring it and hoping it goes away on its own." She waved a hand dismissively as if she was going to brush the whole situation away just like that. "So, where were you?"

"Oh." Bow rubbed a hand against the back of his neck. He'd already done so much lying today. "I, uh--"

Glimmer put up a hand to stop him. "No. It's fine. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She smiled up at him and he felt warm all over.

He grabbed her and wrapped her in another hug. "Thank you," he whispered into her hair.

God, he loved his dads so much but... Was it wrong that this felt more like home?

\---

"You ever get the feeling Bow isn't telling us something?" George asked as he lay his book aside. He pushed his pillow flat as Lance switched off the light and settled into bed.

"Sometimes. He is very evasive. Though it was such a thrill today to finally hear something about what he's been up! Dating and fights and drama! His letters are always books this, schoolwork this, I was so afraid he didn't have any friends at all. But it sounds like he's found his people."

"I wonder about the families these friends of his come from if so many of them are named after princesses!" George grumbled, tugging the quilt up over his shoulder.

Lance nuzzled into his shoulder. "Come on, now! If you didn't associate with anyone who had a princess in the family, where would you and I be?"

"She's a distant cousin! You don't even remember what her powers were!"

"It was something to do with magic... webs? She tossed them or something. Very competitive. Was always yelling, 'Boom!' It's been years, and that's all I remember about her! But, we've never told the kids about her, just like you wanted."

George turned on his side and settled in for sleep. "I hate lying to them but— they've got a certain idea of what we're like and I don't want to ruin that by letting them know we've got a princess in the family! But I am glad Bow's got some good friends over there. Life is a heck of a lot easier when someone's got your back."

Lance spooned against him, his arm over his side. "That's the truth."

**Author's Note:**

> This is only the second fan fic I have ever posted in my life so PLEASE let me know if I messed up the tags or TWs or anything! 
> 
> What should I even tag this as? I am not cool, I do not even know the lingo!
> 
> Comments are always hugely appreciated no matter how long after posting it is!
> 
> Visit my Tumblr for asks, fic updates and misc thoughts. [https://tippenfunkaport.tumblr.com](https://tippenfunkaport.tumblr.com/)


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